Zugzwang
by Jade Katherina Snape
Summary: The replicator is done with copying murders. He's moved on to copying something else. The BAU team.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Zugzwang. The replicator is done with copying murders. He's moved on to copying something else. The BAU team. Starts a few non-cannonical cases after "Carbon Copy". Won't follow the same path the show will, because I obviously don't know what will happen. No pairings, as far as I can see yet, maybe a sequel or a run off with pairings though. M just to be safe for violence and possible language. Don't want that, don't read it!

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The Behavioral Analysis Team of the FBI was on their flight back from a week long case in the middle of nowhere South Dakota when Hotch's phone rang. He looked down at the caller id. _Strauss. What could she possibly want? We just finished this case!_ He answered it, "Hotchner".

A pause.

"What?! This week? And you didn't think to even call us?"

By this time the rest of the agents on the plane were looking over at him.

After a minute, Hotch spoke,"Yes, I understand. We will head right over once we land." And he hung up, a dark look on his face.

"What was that about Hotch?" asked Morgan. "If that was Strauss asking us to do another case it'll have to wait until tomorrow at least!"

"That was Strauss" replied Hotch, the team let out a frustrating huff, "and we do have a case," he put his hand up to stop the complaints, "one that needs our immediate attention- The Replicator has been active again and we need to act fast."

"What has he done?" asked Reid. "Which murder is he copying now?"

"He hasn't killed, at least not yet." the team leader replied. "All Strauss told me is that seven teens have been kidnapped and The Replicator left his signature behind at all the sites."

"Zugzwang?" Rossi asked.

"Something like that." replied Hotch. "Strauss wouldn't tell me much, we'll be filled in when we get there, saying we had to see it our selves. She seemed... anxious. She wouldn't have called unless it was very serious. We will head straight to the bureau from the airstrip."

The rest of the plane was silent- contemplating what their stalker had done now, and why he had gone from murder to kidnapping teens.

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I know it's short, but it needed to end the thought trains here. The next chapter is right here too! Review, Follow, Favorite tell me how my idea's doing, if I'm missing some huge plot point... or anything else! Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

The team was silent on the plane ride home, trying to catch up on sleep they knew they'd be missing for this next case and contemplating this new case to themselves. They knew well of The Replicator, their stalker trying to prove his superiority over them, controlling them. The only thing they didn't know is what he had done this time. In the past he had reopened their closed case files and replicated the murders, but kidnapping seven teenagers and signing his own signature at the locations- that was new.

The plane landed and the agents disembarked into two large black SUV's. Morgan drove Reid and Blake, while Hotch drove Rossi and JJ back to the FBI building. Whatever was at the end of this tense car ride gave the professional agents a small grain of apprehension- The Replicator had taunted and out foxed them before, what could he want now?

The team arrived at the bureau around eleven o'clock at night and went up to their floor, no one was there except Strauss and Garcia, both with blank faces and greetings to the newly returned BAU.

"What's going on and why can't this case wait until morning?" Hotch asked Strauss.

"The Replicator, we believe, has hit again." Strauss stated. Nodding to Garcia, Garcia pulled out seven files. "The conference room is all set up with the information."

"I still don't see.." Blake began.

"You will see." replied Strauss.

The group made their way to the conference room where Garcia, instead of her usual peppy mood, sometimes even at eleven o'clock, was grim faced and full of thought. She handed each profiler a specific file before sitting down with one herself.

"Each of the files in front of you pertains to a missing teenager." Strauss began. "They were taken from various places at various times within various states in the upper east coast. At first there was nothing to connect the disappearances, until this packet was mailed to the BAU today." She said, holding up and evidence bag, inside was a manila envelope. "It made it through security, and was addressed to me. In it were seven envelopes addressed to the seven of you. Since Garcia was here, we opened hers and found these." Strauss held up three photos, one of a teenager, one of Garcia, and one of part of a forearm which had 'zugzwang' cut into it.

The team was shocked.

"What do those photos mean?", asked JJ.

Strauss continued, "Seeing what was in Garcia's envelope, we quickly opened the others to find the same things: a picture of the missing teen, what we believe to be their arm carved with 'zugzwang', and a picture of each of you with it. I had Garcia do face match and pull up the files of the teens in the pictures to find that they actually are the missing teens. In looking through their files we believe that the picture pairings were specifically targeted to each of you. We believe The Replicator is behind these kidnappings, and has geared his targets to each of you. We don't know what he wants, and do to our past history with this unsub, we need to act fast to save these kids' lives. Look through the files to see if anything jumps out at you."

The team slowly opened the files in front of them, pondering this new direction the unsub had taken.

Aaron Hotchner opened the file in front of him. Marcus Kalser- 19, student at Boston University, studying pre-law, excellent student, and also active in theater. The senior picture of him showed a serious, but caring boy with dark brown hair.

David Rossi opened his file to find Grant Florent, a 19 year old student at NYU studying writing, whose parents immigrated from Italy, and who enjoys hunting, as was evident from the picture of Grant in his hunting gear. The brown eyes to match the brown hair of the boy were trademark Italian traits as well as his olive skin tone.

Jennifer Jareau opened the her file to see a smiling young girl with bright blond hair and blue eyes staring at her. Melissa Barron, JJ read, 18 year old senior at Providence High School in Rhode Island, captain of her varsity soccer team, and editor of the school newspaper. The Barron's seemed like a well rounded, typical family- minus Melissa's older sister, who struggled with depression and had dropped out of college, upsetting their family life.

Alex Blake saw a picture of Ellen Casey, a 18 year old freshman in college at Georgetown, studying education with top grades. It also said Ellen is fluent in three languages as well as American Sign Language for her deaf brother. The brown haired girl's smile in the picture hid the tension and reserved nature her blue eyes showed.

Derek Morgan opened his file to see Larson Drews, an 18 senior at Bradford High in Pennsylvania. He is captain of the football team and had scholarships coming in from many colleges for that. Derek got a funny feeling when he read the family side of the file on the black teen. Larson's father, a cop had been killed when Larson was eleven, and he became the head of the household for his mother and three sisters.

Penelope Garcia already knew what was in her file. A 19 year old Carter Collin, whose name shared a list of powerful hackers with Garcia herself. Carter was enrolled in several online college courses, and an avid computer gamer. The family part of the file seemed eerily familiar to Penelope as well- Carter's parents had been killed in a car accident just that last year.

Spencer Reid read his file in a matter of seconds, and read it again, not really believing what he read the first time: Kayla Lauren, a 16 year old doctorate student at MIT studying psychology, with an measured IQ of 186. Her mother left her father when Kayla was 8, leaving Kayla with her father, who has reports of mental instability. Her picture was her student ID, her brown eyes matching her carmel brown hair as she smiled up at him.

Spencer looked around at his team mates, all wearing the same confused and astonished expression he knew he wore, except Garcia, who just nodded to his unspoken question. The team looked to Strauss and she spoke, "I think you all can come to the conclusion that the unsub wants you, but has settled for something close enough."

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Review please! Tell me if I got something wrong! Blake doesn't have a back story, so I'm going to give her one. I changed some stuff on purpose! Next chapter next week!


	3. Chapter 3

A shrill beeping noise broke the silence after Strauss's comment. Garcia jumped up as well as the rest of the team as she raced to her 'lair' from where the beeping was originating. The whole team and Strauss raced to Garcia's office where eight of her many computer screens had gone fuzzy like an untuned TV.

Suddenly they all came to life, each showing a small cell like room, each where a person was strapped to a chair. The eighth screen showed a shadowed figure who began to speak.

"So" it started in a computer-altered speech "I assume you have received my little letters for you and no doubtably with the help of the brilliant Ms. Garcia have figured out my little plot. Since I can't catch the brilliant BAU team, I had to make my own."

"Garcia trace the video signal!" Hotch told her.

She began to frantically work on one of her unaffected computers. "I'm trying! Their hard drives are completely hijacked!" Garcia was frantically typing on all her other computers, trying to find a source on the feed, when the figure spoke again.

"Of course, these kids aren't exactly like you. They haven't experienced all the pains you have gone through. I'll fix that though." Then that screen went black. Garcia raced over to it, trying to revive the dead screen.

"It's totally dead. The main power supply was cut from inside the system, which _he_ controls!" she practically screamed in frustration and anxiety.

"These are the kids?" asked JJ, pointing to the screens. Each screen had the angle of being placed on a similar level to the kids, not looking straight on, but a bit on the side, showing their left forearm carved with 'zugzwang' in small letters. The cells had one light each, shining on the teen as if they were being interrogated, and of course the teens themselves, tied to the chairs. The teens were all unconscious, and except for their arms, looked relatively unharmed.

"Yes" replied Garcia. "That's Marcus, Grant, Melissa, Ellen, Larson, Kayla and", she choked a bit, "Carter" pointing to each on the screen.

"What does he mean they'll experience stuff we have?" asked Blake.

"I think he means stuff we've experienced that is specific to us and our jobs" replied Rossi.

Reid quickly looked to Kayla's screen with a horrified look in his eyes "No" he choked out.

Morgan looked to Hotch, Garcia, and JJ. They knew what Reid meant. Now they too were thinking of the horrors they had gone through that this unsub could possibly inflict on these kids.

"We have to find them. Fast." Morgan said.

"Agreed." replied Hotch. "I don't think these kids have long before the unsub does something to them. We need to work fast, I know we just got back from a case, but this is one that poses an immediate threat to not only these kids, but us. This was an attack on the BAU team, and we have to end this before it gets any farther. I therefore believe we should get to work right away, _but_ we have not only the safety of these kids, but of ourselves to look after as well. I say we go home, get sleep, food, and cleaned and come as early as possible tomorrow.

I'm going to lay out the workload now so you can get working if you wish to come in before me tomorrow. Garcia, work on your computers, figure out how he got into our system and keeping an eye on the kids" they all glanced at the monitors. "Reid, look at the locations of where the victims were taken and get a geographic profile going, wherever he is holding these kids, it can't be too far from where he took them all. JJ, organize a plan to meet with the families for clues on how the unsub found them or took them. Work with Reid and Garcia on the map for this. Blake and Morgan, go over The Replicator's previous files and see if there are any clues as to why he switched tactics. Rossi and I will look through old kidnapping cases to see if anything like this has been done before- specifically targeting the bureau. But before any of this, we need to go back to the kids' files and note what the unsub could do to these kids to make them quote 'like us'."

The team went back to the conference room to gather their files and pack up. Garcia taking a laptop that she was able to stream the feeds of the cells onto so she could monitor the victims. Strauss pulled Hotch aside and turned to him, "This is unlike anything the bureau has seen before. You know that, Hotch. You'll be wasting time searching through old files to find a case in semblance to this."

"I know finding anything is a long shot, but our past experience shows this unsub rarely does his own work, perhaps he expanding off some other kidnapping targeted against the bureau. We have to try to find something." Hotch replied. He continued in a lower voice, "It's all we _can_ do right now."

Strauss nodded grimly, "Get rest. I'll send orders for your area to be opened at 5. I hope your agents can sleep that long under this threat."

"I can only hope for that. " replied Hotch.

The agents arrived back at their respective homes. They all reviewed the files of the victim paired to them. They all imagined what the unsub could do to the victims. They all _tried_ to fall asleep that night.

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Review, Favorite, Follow! Next chapter in a week or so!

Disclaimer: Haven't put one of these up yet so: I don't own Criminal Minds. There, I said it. Now I'm off to imagine life if I did...

Also a note on the computer stuff- I have no idea if the complete overrides could actually happen, but they do in my story. Deal with it.

Hugs and Fishes!


	4. Chapter 4

Before six o'clock in the morning, all of the agents on the BAU team were in their offices or the bullpen, working. Garcia had managed to stream the feeds of the specific cells to their intended team member targets' computer screen. They all wanted to watch out for those poor kids that they had been worried about all last night. No case had ever stuck so quickly to them like this- the team all had their share of connections with victims and unsubs, but these kids were taken because of _them _because they were supposed to be _them. _The agents all felt like they were to blame for this.

This was the tension Strauss walked into when she entered the bullpen and into Hotch's office that next morning.

"Hotch, how early was your team in this morning?" she asked, noting the numerous boxes of kidnapping files littering his office.

"Reid, Garcia, and JJ were here when I arrived at quarter after 5, Morgan, Rossi, and Blake within a half an hour of me." Hotch replied.

"Have you made any progress in how to approach this case?" Strauss asked in an accusing tone.

"I was going to call a meeting to discuss our progress. You are invited to join if you wish." he said, standing up and grabbing a few files from his desk.

"Then I will sit in." Strauss said, moving towards the door.

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Within two minutes, the entire BAU team, Strauss, and Garcia were in the conference room. Reid got up first to present his geographic profile of the unsub.

"What I found with the geographic profile is pretty huge actually. All the kids were actually taken on the same day, three days ago. The estimated times of disappearance all point to the unsub taking them one right after another, what I call the 'road trip' theory. The unsub started out in Milford, Delaware, were Carter lives, then went to Georgetown, New York, Providence, Boston, and finally to Bradford, Pennsylvania. This trip was structured to look like a 'z' on the map. This gives us several clues about the unsub. He doesn't have an accomplice, or else he would have broken up the kidnappings and had the accomplice watch the victims. He also has planned this way in advanced to plan out the route, places, and times of abductions. He also has a vehicle that can transport seven unconscious teenagers without getting to much attention on the toll roads between sites. He knows us, and what we would figure out through tracking his day like this. He wants us to figure this out. He made it to easy. It seems like he wants us to find him, but he still believes in his job to accomplish."

"He wants us to go after the kids as bait so he can get to us." Morgan inferred.

"That's what it looks like." replied Reid.

"He's planned this all so much. If he wants us to find him, he'll make it so that we can't find him until he wants us too." Blake added.

"We should get to Bradford as soon as possible. But first, has anyone else found anything pertaining to the case yet?" asked Hotch.

He was met with silence. "Alright. Wheels up in..." he was cut off by a noise coming from Garcia's laptop. She had been streaming all the cells' live feeds to her laptop to keep an eye on the kids. The team rushed over to he laptop and stared at the screen. The kids were all awake. They had been for about an hour, but there was no sign of the unsub. But the sound they heard wasn't coming from the cells since there was nothing new going on. Instead, the sound was notifications coming up on Garcia's database. New kidnappings. All in the last 24 hours.

Garcia and the rest of the team raced to her lair where they began to read the new missing person files coming in.

Emma Rees. Claira Micks. Denise Barron. Kiers Marten.

"Who are these kids? Do they have any connection to the case?" JJ asked.

Garcia went straight to work, pulling up everything on these kids she could find. As she was ransacking every database in the world, the once dead eighth screen the unsub had hacked came to life again.

"All set." he said before the screen went dark again.

"These new kids definitely have connections to the first victims." Garcia announced. "Emma Rees is a student at BU studying theater and also is the ex-girlfriend of Marcus Kalser." Hotch put his face in his hands. _The ex. Of the boy made to mimic him._

"Claira Micks is a student at Columbia who was engaged to Grant Florent in high school before she lost the baby they were going to get married for, after they split up." Rossi was thinking about Carolyn. _But she had committed suicide. Maybe the unsub didn't care that much about how, as long as what was achieved._

"Denise Barron is Melissa Barron's older sister. Dropped out of college, checked into a mental health facility for depression many times, but living at home now." JJ took in a breath. _She knew what happened to her own older sister._

"Kiers Marten is a student at St. Andrew's at home on break. He's Ellen Casey's boyfriend." Blake wondered about her own husband. _Nothing had happened to him or them together. Yet._

"We need to get there now. Wheels up in twenty, pack for a while though. This unsub is organized and has a plan, however long that might last." Hotch said hurriedly.

The agents rushed to pack and get to the airport. The game had started.

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Hugs and Wishes!


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